Four found guilty of shooting Rwandan exile

Johannesburg - A Pretoria court on Friday found four men guilty of
trying to kill an exiled critic of Rwandan President Paul Kagame, in a case
that had strained diplomatic ties between SA and Rwanda.

Former Rwandan army chief General Faustin Kayumba
Nyamwasa survived being shot in the stomach as he was being driven into his
Johannesburg home in 2010, the same year he fled Rwanda after falling out with
former ally Kagame.

Another attempt on Nyamwasa's life in March this year
intensified diplomatic tensions as Justice Minister Jeff Radebe warned Rwanda
that "our country will not be used as a springboard to do illegal
activities".

Rwanda's ambassador in Pretoria responded by denying
Kigali was involved in attacks against exiles and the countries traded
tit-for-tat expulsions of diplomats.

Magistrate Stanley Mkhari said four men - two Rwandan and
two Tanzanians - were guilty of the first count to commit murder four years
ago. He also found them guilty of joint possession of a firearm and ammunition.

Sentencing was expected next month.

Mkhari said there was not enough evidence to link two
other accused - Nyamwasa's driver Richard Bachisa and Rwandan businessman
Pascal Kanyandekwe - to the crimes.

Prosecutors had accused Kanyandekwe of being a key
organiser of the attempted killing and of working with Bachisa, who had been
driving Nyamwasa and his wife home when a gunman accosted them at the security
gate.

Police have also been investigating the New Year's Eve
murder in a posh Johannesburg hotel of another exiled Kagame opponent, former
Rwandan spy chief Patrick Karegeya.

Exiles

Rwandan political exiles sheltering in other countries in
Africa, Europe and the United States have pointed an accusing finger at Kigali
for dozens of attacks on Kagame's critics on foreign soil, charges Rwandan
leaders have dismissed.

Kagame, who has won Western praise for rebuilding Rwanda
after the 1994 genocide, denies his government ordered the attacks, but has
said "traitors" should expect consequences, a remark that dismayed
Western donors of the Great Lakes state.

Critics say Kagame, who led his predominantly Tutsi rebel
movement to power after the genocide and won support from Western powers as an
ally in turbulent central Africa, has taken advantage of Western guilt over the
genocide to increase persecution of opponents.

The US has expressed concern at what it calls
"politically motivated murders of prominent Rwandan exiles".

South Africa has refused to extradite Nyamwasa despite a
request by French authorities who say he is one of the officers who knew of Kagame's
alleged order to shoot down a plane carrying the then presidents of Rwanda and
Burundi, which triggered the 1994 genocide.

Spain has also sought Nyamwasa's extradition for war
crimes and crimes against humanity in respect to the murder of Spanish citizens
in Rwanda and the massacre of thousands of Hutu refugees at a football stadium